User input devices for computers such as a mouse allow the user to interactively manipulate visual representations of objects such as files by “dragging and dropping” them, by which we mean the sequential acts of positioning the cursor over an object using a pointing device such as a mouse, toggling a control such as a mouse button, moving the pointing device, and releasing the control. This action can accomplish a variety of tasks, for example to rearrange data within a single application or to transport the data between disparate applications.
In existing art, the dragged object is typically displayed as an icon, often with decorations pulled from a broadly-accepted set of iconic language conventions. These icons indicate variants on the basic drag/drop technique (the dragging of a plurality of objects, a drag which will result in a copy of the dragged object, a drag which will result in a reference to the dragged object, etc). In existing art, when multiple objects are being dragged then all are released simultaneously at the moment when the user releases the control to end the drag operation.
The present invention improves upon existing art by providing the user with visual feedback as to the specific content of the list of dragged objects, enabling the user to edit that list prior to dropping the objects, enabling the user to temporarily leave and return to the dragging mode, and enabling the user to distribute multiple dragged objects sequentially.